By Samuel Stubbs |
Suffice to say, Christopher Bell is not at all a fan of the current superspeedway racing product in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“It’s time to focus on the speedway package,” Bell said Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, per Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports. “We desperately need change. We’ve needed change for a long time.”
Since the advent of NASCAR’s Next-Gen car in 2022 — an iteration of car with significantly more drag — passing in the draft at Daytona and Talladega has become extremely difficult, leading teams to focus on pit strategy and fuel saving to gain track position.
That has led to dull superspeedway races at Daytona and Talladega that used to be appointment television.
Christopher Bell: Speedway racing ‘a joke’
“Hopefully, that is the last time that we race that speedway package,” Bell said, referring to the April 26 race at Talladega. “I think a lot of us in the industry would be very excited about that.”
After being involved in a 26-car crash on Lap 115 at Talladega, Joey Logano said drivers’ two options in current speedway racing are to either save fuel or crash. Bell agrees and wants to see that discipline of racing be put back into the drivers’ hands.
“It’s literally a lottery race,” Bell said. “It’s atrocious. Now, the strategy is so spelled out that it becomes all about fuel saving, and we try and adjust the stage lengths so that we’re not fuel saving. Well, you can’t pass. It becomes all about shortening the last pit stop to as short as you can get it.”
Bell noted that, despite NASCAR’s efforts to change stage lengths at Talladega in an effort to reduce fuel saving, it was still the story of the day.
“It’s a joke,” Bell said. “It’s a complete joke. I look forward to changes … The package that we have right now, you can’t do anything. Eight of the top 10 with 40 [laps] to go were eight of the top 10 with one to go … It’s really bad what we have right now … Stage 2 and 3 when we had enough fuel to finish the stages, you’re still part-throttle because you’re right up the guy in front of you. It becomes a suicide mission of who’s going to push the hardest and not get wrecked.”
Bell finished 17th at Talladega and is ninth in the Cup Series standings going into Sunday’s race at Texas.
